Bill would make March 30 Ohio's Vietnam vets day

Wednesday

Mar 14, 2012 at 12:01 AMMar 14, 2012 at 9:36 AM

Retired Air Force Col. Tom Moe, who knows a bit about Vietnam, having spent five years as a prisoner of war there, tipped the scale yesterday as an Ohio Senate committee voted to set March 30 as Vietnam War Veterans Day.

Alan Johnson, The Columbus Dispatch

Retired Air Force Col. Tom Moe, who knows a bit about Vietnam, having spent five years as a prisoner of war there, tipped the scale yesterday as an Ohio Senate committee voted to set March 30 as Vietnam War Veterans Day.

Moe, director of the Ohio Department of Veterans Services, flew 60 combat missions over Vietnam as an Air Force pilot before he was forced down and captured. After he endorsed Senate Bill 134 in testimony before the Senate State & Local Government & Veterans Affairs Committee, it voted 8-0 to send the bill on for a full Senate vote.

The vote ended a two-year stalemate about whether Ohio should set aside a day for Vietnam vets and, particularly, whether it should be March 29 or 30.

“These veterans have not been properly honored for their service and, on the contrary, have often been vilified by those who used our veterans as a target for their political opposition to American foreign policy,” Moe told committee members.

The bill is sponsored by Sen. Mark Wagoner, R-Toledo.

“This legislation puts Ohio alongside citizens across our nation who are saying thanks to this group of veterans. Now, they will be receiving the recognition that our forefathers got when they came home from previous wars and that our sons and daughters are receiving today.”

About 300,000 Ohioans, roughly one-third of all its living veterans, served in the Vietnam era.

The subject of a day to honor them was discussed in late 2009 when veterans lobbied state legislators to recognize Vietnam vets who, more often than not, returned home to a public that was scornful, or at best apathetic, because of the war’s unpopularity.

However, a few veterans groups, including the Ohio American Legion, spoke out against designating Vietnam War Veterans Day on March 29, in line with similar action in other states.

Vets noted that March 29 was not only the date when U.S. forces pulled out of Vietnam, but it’s also the date when Lt. William Calley Jr. was convicted in the killing of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre.

Moe agreed.

“As we move to honor for the first time officially as a state, and to heal the wounds of so many service men and women,” he said, “certainly we would not at the same time choose a date that would negate that honor and thus sully the true intentions and motivations of this very legislation.”

The Buckeye State Council of Vietnam Veterans of America wrote a letter supporting the March 30 designation.

“Stop splitting hairs concerning the day,” council President Thomas Burke wrote. “Establish the day regardless the 29th or the 30th ... Acknowledge the vital contributions once and for all time for those who served during what has become known as the ‘Vietnam Conflict.’??”